It has been months, nay, a year, since I realized that I needed to do something about my shopping guides. We all need a place that has a ton of resources so we’re not just blindly Googling “couch,” and hoping the G-box brings us the right one. Back in ye olde days of the Web 1.0, I used to bookmark ’s shopping list page; anytime I was in the market for something, I started there.

So this is what I am attempting to do for you — an Ultimate Home Shopping Guide. It’s a collection of curated lists that go beyond what Google will show you. We’ve got tile! We’ve got tableware! We’ve got lighting! We’ve got a guide if you’re renovating! And so much more.

Here’s how to use it…

You can either:

• Navigate to this revamped section at the top of my homepage, called Ultimate Home Shopping Guide.

• Or, better yet, bookmark this page, which is a master guide linking everything together.

The best part is that I will be updating and editing these guides as the tides change. Right now we currently have over 350+ sources across all guides.

Here’s the thing. The guides are for paid subscribers. So if you want to have access to this ongoing resource, and you aren’t paid, change your sub status here:

Upgrade to Paid

BUT, for a limited time, I’m keeping the Furniture & Decor Guide open to all. I’ll likely rope it off next week.

Readers, PRs:

• Feel free to reach out or comment if you want to nominate something for the list(s).

• And if there’s a specific guide you want, pipe up in the comments!

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But I kind of let the cat out of the bag…I’m revamping all my shopping guides in a major way. I’ll let you know when they are ready…very close.

Welcome to Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guide. It’s your resource to everything you could ever need for your home. Click on a section for each specific guide.

FURNITURE/DECOR

• Click here

TABLEWARE, GLASSWARE, PLATES, TABLE LINENS

• Click here

PAINT, FABRIC & WALLPAPER

• Click here

RUGS

• Click here

LIGHTING

• Click here

TILE & FLOORING

• Click here

KIDS

• Click here

TOWELS & SHOWER CURTAINS

• Click here

SHEETS & BLANKETS

• Click here

BATHROOM & PLUMBING FIXTURES

• Click here

HARDWARE

• Click here

VINTAGE

• Click here

VINYL STORAGE

• Click here

CABINETRY

• Click here

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Schmatta is written by Leonora Epstein, a former shelter pub editor-in-chief. Follow at @_leonoraepstein and/or @schmattamag. For consulting and collab requests, please visit my website.

This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

Caveat for this page: I can’t claim that these are all put in the perfect category; there’s overlap, etc. But I did my best to bucket things.

MASS

• Blu Dot

• Eq3

• Schoolhouse

• Ferm Living

• DWR

• Arhaus

• Sundays

• Industry West

• Lulu and Georgia

• Serena & Lily

• Hetta

INDEPENDENT DESIGN BRAND/MAKER

• Maiden Home

• Hem

• Part & Whole

• Waka Waka

• TRNK

• Sing Thing by Adi Goodrich

• Beata Heuman

• Made By Choice

• Lawson Fenning

• Pieces

• Warm Nordic

• Sixpenny

• J.D. Lee Furniture

• Studio Atkinson

• Studio Mignon

• Croft House

• Floyd

• Akron Street

• Audo Copenhagen

• France & Son

• Kalon

• Peg Woodworking

• Loose Parts

• Studio Kallang

• Lostine

• Sister by Studio Ashby

• Kanyon

• McMullin & Co

• Bower

• Brunel

• Abner Henry

• Crump & Kwash

• Holly Hunt

• Lucca House

• Objects for Objects

• Oforo

• Rachel Donath

• RAD

• Riffmade

• Roman and Williams

• Orior

COLLECTIVE/GALLERY

• Work Of

• Matter

• The Future Perfect

• Gestalt New York

• Galerie Half

• The Invisible Collection

• The Oblist

• Quarters

• Erria

• LES Collection

• Garde

• Adorno Design

• Egg Collective

• Lichen

• Modern Metier

• Monde Singulier

MULTI-BRAND RETAILER

• SSENSE

• Little King

• A + R

• Beam

• CA Modern Home

• Danish Design Store

• The Expert

• Archiproducts

• Artemest

• Spartan Shop

• MoMA

• Goodee

• Coming Soon

• Claude Home

• End

• The Conran Shop

• Moda Operandi

• Sunday Shop

• The Primary Essentials

• FarFetch

• Abask

• Rentrayage

• Artemest

• Luisaviaroma

MOSTLY ACCESSORIES/DECOR

• Nickey Kehoe

• A History of Frogs

• Pierce & Ward

• &Tradition

• Mociun

• Garmentory

• Edie Parker

• Gustaf Westman

• Anastasio

• Jinen

BACK TO ALL GUIDES:

This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

• Reform

• Very Simple: Kitchen

• deVOL

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

FURNITURE

• Oeuf

• House of RoRo

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

• 1stdibs

• Formas

• Live Auctioneers

• Rarify

• Vinterior

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

TILE

• Fireclay Tile

• Popham Design

• Clé

• Tiles of Ezra

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

• Morrow Soft Goods

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

THE “BIG” SITES

• Lightology

• Lumens

• Rejuvenation

• Schoolhouse

“FANCY”/INDEPENDENT/ICONIC/DESIGNER

• Ladies & Gentlemen

• In Common With

• Flos

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

• Ellis Works

• Petra

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

PAINT

• Clare

• Farrow & Ball

• Alkemis

• Portola

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

GLASSWARE

• Sophie Lou Jacobsen

• Maison Balzac

• Upstate

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here. For more shopping recs, check out my ShopMy page.

• Inbani

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I first became aware of Anna Dawson’s work when I visited the Upper East Side outpost of Big Night. Hanging above a dining table was this glowing red orb, almost alien-like in presence. , Big Night’s owner, was in the shop that day and she told me who made the light — Anna Dawson.

After that, Anna’s work started showing up on my feed and I was absolutely entranced by it. It’s only so often that you find design that really makes you feel something. Absolute wonder. (I need to come up with a word for that phenomenon — perhaps the Germans already have one.)

Anyhow, I had to know more about Anna and I’m so pleased that she agreed to a Q&A. Read on to hear about her transition from photographer to designer, the memorable themes she focuses on, the financial structures behind licensing deals, and her badass ribbon-dancing grandma.

She’s just launched a new collection today on her website! Otherwise, you can also find her wares on Lightology and Claude Home. (FYI, Claude carries exclusive colors of Anna’s designs, and I NEEEED the blue sconces. Also of Claude has a great Substack.)

Schmatta: I’d love to know more about you — who you are, where you come from.

Anna: I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area originally. Both my parents are architects, so there’s a lot of design in my family — my brother’s a shoe designer, and I’m a furniture designer.

I lived in Seattle for a while, where I was a working artist and photographer. At the time I was working for a friend who had a furniture company and was manufacturing all his own work, so I’d go in and help him sand things. That’s when I became really interested in design and thought maybe I’d go to design school — I ended up at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Furniture Department.

Leonora: How do you go from being a photographer to getting into a furniture program? What do you present for your portfolio?

Anna: The photography I was doing was really sculptural — I had a show where I made lights out of photographs, so “photographer” is a loose term. I used that work and other photography I’d done for my portfolio, but RISD isn’t really looking for people with furniture backgrounds. They like to bring in people with really different backgrounds and perspectives. A lot of people go the art route there, but coming from being an artist, I didn’t want to be an artist — I liked thinking about production, problem-solving through making, learning a process and then figuring out how to innovate on it or find space for something new.

<Anna’s design for Heller: Swell Wall Catchall, $100>

Leonora: So your “breakthrough” was the Heller wall hook?

Anna: In the middle of school I presented a wall piece I’d designed at ICFF with RISD. Heller saw my piece and was interested in licensing and producing it. People always ask what the strategy was — honestly, there wasn’t one. It sort of happened to me.

Leonora: I’m always curious about the financial side of licensing deals — how does that actually work?

Anna: I don’t want to share specific numbers, but it wasn’t a lot of money — though it did pay for studio space, which was really helpful. Now that I run my own business, I understand it better: [companies like Heller] front a lot of risk and money. The wall hook is an injection-molded plastic piece now, so developing a mold alone can cost up to six figures. It was never a product I was going to put into production myself, and I wasn’t interested in trying.

Leonora: Is it structured like a book deal — an advance plus royalties?

Anna: There’s no advance, just a royalty. The nice thing about licensing, in the right circumstances, is that it can be passive income and passive work — you get to act more like a creative director rather than someone hands-on in development. But for all my lighting work, I do all of it myself.

Leonora: Your lighting has had so much buzz…you must be doing well!

Anna: Actually, I’ve had a day job this whole time [*Anna was a furniture designer for another brand] — yesterday was actually my last day, so today is my first day working for myself full time!

Leonora: Why do you think your lighting is breaking through right now?

Anna: I’m not totally sure, but the pieces that are most popular are my sconces — maybe it’s a combination of price point and material; glass is really hot right now. Those pieces came out of a lot of experimentation.

Leonora: What was the inspiration behind the Dawn surface mounts?

Anna: It was inspired by how the sun draws across the horizon — specifically over the ocean. I thought about growing up in California and going to the beach; I thought about that shape a lot.

Leonora: And the Horizon lamp?

Anna: Similar, but thinking about the reflection of the sun on water — you get a distinct shape and then an abstracted, elongated shape depending on the day and wind.

Leonora: Any other pieces with a good backstory?

Anna: I love the Calle sconces. Everyone says they look like flowers, and they are floral-inspired, but they’re really named after the little paths (“calle” — Spanish for a kind of path) leading to the beach where I grew up, which are lined with calla lilies at certain times of year. I wanted to capture that exploratory feeling of walking through the path and then emerging at the beach.

Leonora: What are you working on next?

Anna: I’ve just launched a collection inspired by dance. I’ve been thinking a lot about ribbon dancing, which my grandmother used to do — she was from Taiwan, worked for the government, and traveled the world doing dance exhibitions as a form of cultural exchange. As a kid, she’d come teach ribbon dancing at my school — everyone would tape ribbon to chopsticks and run around with it. She also did a form of northern Chinese “mountain dancing” with bamboo sticks. I love the movement of ribbons — how light they feel, and how gravity pulls at them so elegantly.

(Above and below: Anna’s grandmother, badass ribbon dancer.)

From that, I have the Dancer sconce, which is similar in process to the Calle sconces but with a “waist” — there’s a symmetrical version and a more dynamic asymmetrical version.

There’s also the Ribbon chandelier, my first chandelier, which tries to capture that gravity-and-ribbon feeling, and the Twirl table lamps, which take a form similar to the Horizon lamps — all glass, base included, illuminating as a whole piece. The Twirl lamps were inspired by the way a skirt fans out when you twirl.

The end! Be sure to follow Anna on Instagram @studioannadawson.

Let’s get straight to it. We recently went over kind-of affordable dining chair sets. To recap: Dining chairs are so annoying because you have to buy so many of them. So no matter how cheap your dining chairs are — it’s still a lot of money. In part 1, I found you options from Zara Home, IKEA, and HAY, as well as options by Scandinavian and independent makers.

But, honestly, you’re probably better off (financially) buying a vintage set — you just have to look at where the vendor is. Buying from Europe means larger shipping costs.

So, here we go…

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I had promised you a part 2 to the dining chairs guide, but I gotta say — I’m just not up for it.

This week, some insane stuff went down in my life that honestly turned my world upside down. I’m in a state of shock. I have no words.

It’s one more thing to add onto my pile of anxiety and uncertainty, which has been steadily mounting over the past tw…

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I find dining chairs to be some of the most infuriating decor. The right combo of table and amazing dining chairs makes you look like a decorating genius. But you have to buy so many! So expensivo! ARRRRRGGGG!

As for moi, I have IKEA chairs similar to this, but in red. Nothing fancy but they make a nice statement. And we have had them for 10 years! And this was before everyone was talking about the pop of red theory.

<<Want more Schmatta shopping guides? Here ya go!>>

So I’ve picked out some chairs for you and I’m listing them by individual price and as a set of 6. I mean, if you have more than 4 friends, more power to you. I’m trying to stay under $500 per chair, which honestly — is difficult and still nuts! But let’s just assume you’re ready to actually buy a set and you know it’s going to cost something. Also, FYI: I hate heavily upholstered dining chairs. Or dining chairs that look like armchairs.

Just so you know, my dream dining chairs are Vico Magistretti Carimate chairs —4 without arms, and 2 with arms at the heads of the table. Which brings me to my final point — next week will be a part 2, focusing on vintage dining chairs.

Allons-y!

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We have a bit of an aberration today in our regularly scheduled design-design-design! programming. But it this will all start to make sense, I promise.

And, please, if you like Schmatta, think about upgrading to a paid membership. I put a lot of time and thought into this content and I’m a real human trying to make the whole Substack thing work. Also: If you decide to become a founding member, I will help you design a room and/or create a personalized shopping list if you are in the market for a couch, table, whatever!

Upgrade to Paid!

Margaret Wise Brown. You know her books. Goodnight Moon. Runaway Bunny. The more I read these books to my 4-year-old, the more I feel like I’m losing my grip on reality.

Because contained within a series of four books — The Runaway Bunny (1942), Goodnight Moon (1947), My World (1949), and Good Day, Good Night (published posthumously in 2017) — are overlapping multiverses and patterns that make you seriously consider the viability of the Simulation Hypothesis.

But only if you look very, very closely.

We must, of course, give credit to Brown’s illustrator, Clement Hurd, for his work in crafting the environments of the first three books; and Loren Long for picking up Hurd’s work in Good Day, Good Night.

The decor world has long adored the Goodnight Moon bedroom with its generous striped drapery, Rococo mantel clock, and curious animal skin rug. But something sinister is lurking in this room. It should be a warning to us all.

Let’s start with the first book, The Runaway Bunny. First off, Runaway Bunny (henceforth referred to as RB) is a terrible child. All he wants is to get away from his mother bunny (MB), who is always one step ahead of RB. It’s 1942. It’s, uh, a weird time, to say the least. Americans are shipping off their sons to fight a deadly war in Europe.

First thing to pay attention to in The Runaway Bunny is the full-color image of MB baiting RB with a carrot in a stream. Remember this. It will become very important.

Second important spread in The Runaway Bunny is this fireside scene close to the end. Note that RB is now wearing blue striped pajamas, akin to Goodnight Moon. And I don’t know what we do with this information…but remember it’s 1942. Blue-and-white stripes are being used elsewhere across the Atlantic in the most diabolical of circumstances. But let’s look closer at this tableau. The furniture is similar to that of the nursery in Goodnight Moon, but more importantly, there is a full-color painting of a “cow jumping over the moon”:

Let’s now thumb over to Goodnight Moon. And I’d like to point out that the curtains on the cover are orange and red NOT yellow and green. What kind of trickery is this? Anyhow…

The first overlap we can detect is that RB and MB are now recurring characters, although in Goodnight Moon, there is no established familial relationship. MB is just an “old lady” (rude).

We are immediately re-introduced to the cow-jumping-over-the-moon painting.

We’re also going to take a look at the clock on the mantel — the time is going to advance as the book goes on. When we start the book, it’s 7 p.m.

And we finish at nearly 8 p.m.

Also, I’m sure, if you have read this book billions of times like I have, you’ll notice that the little mouse moves around the room in every illustration. Plotting something, clearly.

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Now let’s inspect that three little bears painting. Because within that painting, on the wall, is a duplicate of the cow-jumping-over-the-moon painting.

This is the point at which the sign has become untethered from reality. The cow-jumping-over-the-moon image is no longer depicting an event. It is depicting a depiction of an event. At this point, Baudrillard is having a field day.

Now, the dollhouse.

Which is clearly…where the three little bears live, because aren’t those the same curtains?? This is all becoming very “THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!”

This can be referred to as a “recursive sign system.” I refer to it as a dollhouse operating a shadow government.

But we also need to examine the bookshelf, because on it, in very teeny tiny writing, on one of the books, we can make out the title, The Runaway Bunny.

It’s fully weird at this point because now we have to consider the possibility that The Runaway Bunny ceases to be a story and becomes an artifact within its own universe.

And when we zoom out further, above the bookcase is a black-and-white painting of MB trying to bait RB in the stream.

Okay. But the true, rule-bending mindfuck comes when we can more clearly discern what is on the little bunny’s nightstand. It’s A COPY. OF. GOODNIGHT. MOON.

This is now full-on psychological warfare!!! We’ve been Black Mirrored. If the bunny in Goodnight Moon is reading Goodnight Moon, is there another bunny inside that copy reading another copy of Goodnight Moon? It’s a hall of infinite mirrors.

After some ujjayi breathing to calm us down, we can continue on to My World.

It’s 1949 and the war is over, thank Jesus. And all of a sudden MB and RB have a father figure in the picture — perhaps he’s returned unscathed (physically, yet not emotionally amirite?) from the war?

For the most part we have some super nuclear family stuff going on in this volume. MB, previously a badass mountaineer/shapeshifter/tightrope walker/the fucking “wind” as portrayed in The Runaway Bunny…

Is now relegated to the realm of women’s domestic work, multitasking between making breakfast, feeding multiple animals, and presumably moderating the behavior of both her son and husband.

Everything’s going pretty well until bam bam bam!! What the fuck is that?? It’s dinner with the in-laws and in that dining room is…a framed image of MB wrangling her motherfucking son in that G-D river that she did seven years earlier.

Are we beginning to suspect that this image is MB’s silent rebellion? An attempt to remind the patriarchy: DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH?

We will never escape this image. It simply persists.

We can all finally recover from our collective heart attacks in Good Day, Good Night, where things at least feel like a more quiet, logical progression.

The bakery — or the Bunbunnyrie — takes inspiration from Goodnight Moon’s green-and-gold curtains.

As does the bunny’s bedding:

Thankfully, there are no ominous paintings following us around. Just these “cow jumping over the moon” bookends.

Thank the lord.

Now, Goodnight, Substack people.

Goodnight, .

And Goodnight, .

Goodnight restacks everywhere.

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This is part of Schmatta’s Ultimate Home Shopping Guides. Be sure to check them all out here.

If you have a Crosley turntable, this guide isn’t for you.

If your record collection can be contained in a “cube,” this guide isn’t for.

If your husband is a massive audiophile who has “only” 3,000 records taking up every inch of your living room, all contained within multiple hideous IKEA Kallax units, THIS GUIDE IS FOR YOU.

Every time I complain about the abundance of records occupying opportune floor space in our rather small bungalow home, my husband, Drew, counters, “But records look nice! You don’t think they look nice?”

Yes. They look nice! I’m not saying they don’t! God! I just wish we had the budget to store them in something other than shelves that look like plastic ice cube trays.

The best, nicest-looking vinyl storage is…getting a designer to fabricate something custom for you.

Okay, so none of us are going to to that. Problem is, there isn’t a ton of vinyl-specific storage furniture out there — and the ones that are are like, it’s cool man, we all live a Nashville barn or like, it’s called mid-century mod, I’m a straight man with a woodshop.

But you can use normal shelving if:

• The depth and height (or the measurement of space from shelf to shelf) is at least 13 inches.

• The shelves are sturdy enough to support a lot of weight. Vinyl is so fucking heavy.

So here are some options…

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